Ole Miss turns in another poor performance against South Carolina, loses series

Ole Miss head baseball coach Mike Bianco watches as his team builds a 7-0 lead. Ole Miss and Southern Mississippi played a college baseball game at Trustmark Park in Pearl on Tuesday, April 20, 2018. Photo by Keith Warren

If it wasn't clear South Carolina's bats held the advantage over Ole Miss' pitching staff on Friday, the Gamecocks left no doubt on Saturday.

A day after scoring 13 runs and racking up 15 hits, South Carolina battered the fifth-ranked Rebels' pitching yet again. The Gamecocks collected 14 hits, seven off Ole Miss starter Brady Feigl, and won, 11-6, in Columbia to deliver the Rebels yet another SEC series loss.

On Friday, the game got away from Ole Miss (35-13, 12-11 SEC) when South Carolina (28-18, 12-11) struck for nine combined runs in the third and fourth innings. The script for Saturday's game was fairly similar.

It was a scoreless game headed into the bottom of the third, then the Gamecocks broke through with a three-run inning, which included a Matt Williams home run to open the scoring.

Then things fell apart in the fourth when South Carolina scored five runs to extend its advantage to 8-1. Williams, who went 3-for-5, recorded an RBI single and three more of his teammates came through with RBI base hits in the frame.

Like Ryan Rolison a night before, Feigl's stat line was ugly. He lasted 3⅓ innings, allowed eight runs on seven hits, struck out six batters and walked three.

Through two games of this series, Ole Miss' starters have been charged with 19 runs. The Gamecocks had their way with LSU's pitching two weeks ago, performed very well against Vanderbilt last week and have stayed hot against the Rebels.

Ole Miss scored five runs in the eighth and Grae Kessinger made the score look more respectable with a two-run home run, but it was too little too late. The Rebels also left 10 runners on base a day after leaving 11 on.

In the loss, Ryan Olenek extended his hitting streak to 22 games. Ole Miss has dropped three consecutive SEC series on the road.

James McArthur will start Sunday's game, which starts at 11 a.m., as the Rebels try to avoid the sweep.